


She is a Wily One

by Happy_Days19



Category: Fast and the Furious Series, Hobbs & Shaw (2019)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 14:43:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23101978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Happy_Days19/pseuds/Happy_Days19
Summary: Life is tough. These are snippets of the life of the Shaw children that have helped shape them into the people they are.
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Nothing graphic, but alludes to child abuse.

Hattie was six years old when she learned how to pick a lock. Now, it might seem weird that a six year-old would need to know how to do that, but the Shaw family had never been quite… normal. From the outside, the Shaw family seemed nice enough. If anyone really looked, really looked, they would notice small things that added up to a different story. 

Whenever the Shaw family ventured out, Magdalene usually received comments about her children.

“Oh, Magdalene, Deckard is so mature for his age! How on Earth did you teach him to act so well?”

No one ever realized that he had to be that way. They didn’t see the belt that awaited him if he or his siblings stepped one toe out of line.

“He’s naturally gifted. Looks after his siblings so well,” Magdalene always responded slyly.

“That Owen, though. He’s a little rambunctious, don’t you think?”

“Takes after his father, the tyke. He’s a good kid,” she would say, dancing around the question.

People didn’t realize that Owen’s behavior was simply a way of crying out for the attention and validation that he didn’t always get at home.

“And your little one, Hattie. She’s so well-behaved, but she doesn’t say much. She’s always watching.”

“Ah, she’s always watching Deckard. Looks up to him terribly,” was her typical response.

Hattie, the baby of the three, tended to spook people by the way she observed everything.

As the kids got older, they learned how to keep the outside world from learning what went on in their home. They each perfected their own type of mask, of protection, learning early on that it was much better to keep things to themselves.

Deckard was the protector and the enforcer. Owen had a nasty habit of picking fights. When he couldn’t finish them, Deckard had to step in and clean up before any adults, especially their parents, heard about what had happened. Deckard was the one to try to keep Owen and Hattie out of trouble, which was quite the task.

Owen had a temper. He was impulsive and didn’t always think things through, which frequently got him in trouble. One particular scheme of Owen’s almost got Hattie hurt.

“Come on, Hattie, I need your help,” Owen said, grabbing Hattie’s arm and pulling her along.

Hattie, who just wanted to make her brother happy, had gone along willingly.

“Where are we going?” she asked, almost running to keep up with the quick pace of her taller brother.

“Nowhere important. I’m bringing you to meet a few of my friends. Just don’t say anything stupid,” Owen snapped.

Hurt, Hattie stopped asking questions, instead focusing on where they were going. They turned down a couple of streets Deckard told her to stay away from, and Hattie almost said something, but she quickly shut her mouth when she saw the glare Owen shot her. Eventually, Owen came to a stop in front of a boarded-up shop. Hattie stumbled a bit, but Owen jerked her upright.

“This is her?” a voice came from the shadows of an alley.

“Yeah. You ready? I want to get out of here quickly,” Owen said as three boys who were a little older than Owen came into the light. One of them pulled a few boards off a broken window, creating an opening just big enough for someone Hattie’s size to crawl through.

Hattie slunk back, trying to hide behind Owen. She had seen the older boys fighting with Deckard before, and she didn’t like anyone who would hurt him. Noticing her behavior, Owen grabbed her wrist and yanked her out from behind him.

“Come on, Hattie. Stop acting like such a scaredy-cat. I need you to climb through that window and unlock the front door. Can you do that, or are you too much of a crybaby?”

Hattie hated being called a crybaby. She steeled herself, a scowl coming over her face.

“I can do it.”

Owen boosted her up, basically pushing her through the window. Hattie cried out as a shard of broken glass sliced her arm, but she didn’t stop. After all, she didn’t want to let her brother down. Broken glass littered the floor, glinting in the faint light from the outside. Hattie carefully picked her way to the door, unlocking and opening it quickly.

Before the boys had a chance to enter the store, a loud voice cut through the dusk.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing? I’m ringing the police.”

One of the boys shouted to run, and they all took off. Hattie wasn’t as fast as the boys, but she was still pretty quick for her age. The group turned down another street and stopped, taking a quick breather. Owen was leaning against the wall, trying to catch his breath. The tallest boy turned on Hattie.

“She’s gonna snitch! We can’t trust her.”

“She won’t say anything, right Hattie?” Owen asked, giving her a pointed look. Hattie nodded quickly, trying to convince them.

The sound of a siren pierced the air, and everyone scattered. Somehow, Hattie and Owen ended up running in completely different directions. She sprinted as fast as she could, almost keeping pace with the tallest boy. Right before they were about to turn the corner, Hattie’s breath was sucked out of her as she was roughly shoved against a wall.

“Your brother might trust you, but I don’t. Think I’ll just make sure you stay here. You say anything to anyone, I’ll make you regret it,” he whispered menacingly, getting up in Hattie’s face and pushing her against the wall again.

Hattie twisted and kicked, but she was unable to break the grasp of the much bigger boy. She managed to kick him hard in the stomach, but he just held her tighter, dragging her over to a grate.

“Nicked these from the police,” he smirked, handcuffing her to the grate.

“Let me go!”

“Not a chance. You keep your mouth shut!” he yelled over his shoulder, running away.

Hattie tried everything to get out of the cuffs, but they were just too tight. She was pretty scared, especially when it started getting dark, but she stayed calm. Maybe Owen and Deckard were looking for her. Shivering as a cold wind blew through the alley, Hattie curled into herself. Her stomach was growling and her arm really hurt from where it had gotten cut on the glass. All of the sudden, Hattie heard footsteps and voices.

“How could you involve her in this? She’s not old enough for your shit.”

“Deckard!” she cried, heart leaping.

“Hattie!”

Two sets of footsteps came pounding down the alley before she saw Deckard and Owen.

“Are you all right?” Deckard asked, checking her over. “What happened to your arm?”

“I’m okay. Can we go home now?” she asked, holding up her cuffed wrists as much as possible.

“Yeah,” Deckard said, pulling out a pin to pick the lock on her cuffs. “Don’t you have something to say?” he asked, looking at Owen.

“Sorry, Hat,” Owen mumbled, kicking at the ground. “Won’t happen again.”

Hattie just sniffed, a little mad at him.

Once Deckard finished releasing her wrists, she threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly.

“Thanks, Deck.”

She found out later that Deckard and Owen had been out searching for her since she disappeared and that Deckard had almost punched Owen, he was so mad at getting her involved in something so stupid.

After this incident, Hattie was understandingly more wary of Owen and his ideas. At least Owen, probably at the urging of Deckard, had been much nicer and had stopped hanging out with the wrong crowd. She and Deckard grew even closer and started creating grifts of their own. Hattie trusted Deckard to the ends of the Earth and knew that he would always keep her safe.

“Hey, Hats,” Deckard called, tossing something shiny into Hattie’s lap.

“What’s this?” Hattie asked, holding it up to inspect it closely.

“It’s a lock pick. Figured it might be useful at some point.”

“How does it work?”

Deckard grinned, happy that Hattie was enthusiastic about learning how to pick a lock. He started teaching Hattie all the skills he had picked up over the years, starting with lock picking. He wanted to make sure that she would never again find herself in a situation that she couldn’t get herself out of safely. Hattie was a smart and capable kid, and she could absolutely take care of herself, but he was going to give her the best tools he could to help her face the cruel world.

Hattie, being Hattie, grasped lock picking and all the other things Deckard taught her quickly. She ended up being surprisingly good at creating her own ideas and plans, and she and Deckard swiftly became a duo that everyone knew not to mess with.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Nothing graphic, but alludes to child abuse.

When Hattie was ten, she scored a hat trick in her team’s championship football game. She was the only girl in her league, but she surpassed the skill of almost all of the boys. Unfortunately, this also made her a big target. Some of the boys and their parents didn’t like that she was playing with them, which led to some rough tackles, shoves to the back, or elbows to the head.

Hattie never retaliated physically; she just let it fuel the fire inside her. If a boy “accidentally” brought her down with a dirty tackle, she would just expose his shoddy defense and score. Usually more than once. If the other team wanted to go cry to their mummies, that was their problem.

The day of the championship game was a cloudy day, but luckily, it wasn’t rainy. There wasn’t any mud on the field, which made it a little easier to track the movement of the ball. Unfortunately, what made the game more difficult was the other team openly targeting her. Her team couldn’t do much to stop it, and she found herself on the ground every couple minutes. Even her coach, who rarely intervened, was yelling at the referee, who was claiming that he didn’t see anything.

“What’s your problem?” Hattie asked, jumping up and brushing herself off angrily after she found herself on the ground once again.

“Can’t handle it? Girls are so weak,” the opposing player laughed, running away.

Hattie clenched her fists. She’d show him. She’d show all of them.

Since Hattie was apparently invisible to the referee until she committed an infraction, the play hadn’t stopped when she was blatantly fouled. She ran after her teammates, putting herself in the perfect position to receive the ball. One of her teammates saw her open and crossed her ball over to her. She blasted the ball just beyond the reach of the keeper, straight into the back of the net.

Her teammates ran to her and celebrated amongst boos from the other team and some of their parents. Hattie ignored the hostility and focused on the joy and vindication she felt by showing the other team that they couldn’t keep her down.

“Couldn’t stop that? Boys are so weak,” she said as she passed the player who had taken her out earlier.

His face turned the color of a tomato as he started spluttering. Hattie ran to get in position before he could come up with a response.

Hattie ended up scoring two more times in the game, and it was clear that the opposition was letting their emotions get to them. They were making sloppy mistakes and falling apart as a team. Hattie’s team was getting taken down left and right, and the referee seemed to be the most oblivious person in the world, not calling anything.

By the time he blew the final whistle, more than half of Hattie’s team was hobbling. They still celebrated enthusiastically, but their excitement had been dampened slightly by the poor sportsmanship of the other team.

As soon as she got her medal, Hattie slipped away. She wasn’t exactly supposed to be playing football, per se. Actually, her father had forbidden her playing on a boys’ team, but there weren’t any girls’ teams in the area, and she had really wanted to play. Luckily, he hadn’t found out yet, but she didn’t want to take any chances hanging around longer than necessary.

Of course, now that they had won the championship, she was a little worried that he would hear, but he was never around. If he wasn’t around, he wouldn’t find out, right? That was what Hattie was hoping for, at least.

As she was walking home, she heard footsteps approaching quickly behind her. When she glanced over her shoulder, she saw the boy she had taunted during the game. She tried to speed up, but now that the boy knew she knew he was following her, he closed the distance and pulled her down one of the nearby alleys.

“What are you doing?” Hattie asked, trying to squirm out of the boy’s grasp.

“You made us look dumb,” the boy said, glaring at her.

“It wasn’t hard. You did that yourselves.”

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say, and the boy shoved her roughly against the wall.

“What do you know? You’re just a pathetic little girl!”

That did it. Hattie was usually able to brush everything off pretty well, but she had had enough. Squaring up, her fist connected with his nose with a solid crunch. The boy stared at her for a couple seconds in disbelief before letting her go, his hands fluttered up to his face to try to stem the flow of blood.

“I’m going to tell!” the boy exclaimed, tears glistening in the corners of his eyes.

“Good! Go tell everyone you got your arse kicked by a girl!” Hattie yelled, face flushed bright red.

“You tell ‘em, Hats,” Deckard said, walking up to the scene. “I think it might be time to go now, though.”

Hattie could hear voices approaching and decided her brother was right. She took a deep breath and nodded, walking briskly out of the alley, leaving her anger with the boy.

“So, you won,” Deckard said, coming up to walk beside her. “Good job. Knew you could do it.”

Hattie smiled brightly at him.

“You saw? I thought you were busy.”

“’M never too busy for you. And good technique on that punch.”

“You saw that too?”

“Yeah, but I knew you could handle it. And you did,” he said, patting her shoulder approvingly.

“What if he tells?”

“He won’t,” Deckard answered reassuringly. “Did you get a medal?”

“Yeah,” Hattie answered, pulling it out and handing it to him. “It’s really shiny.”

Deckard examined the medal before passing it back to her.

“Congratulations. Do you want to go get ice cream?”

“We haven’t got any money,” Hattie frowned.

“Nicked a fiver from his wallet,” Deckard said, waving the money in the air. Hattie had no question as to who he had taken the money from, but she didn’t like it. Their father could be cruel without reason, so provoking him was a very bad idea.

“Deck! If he finds out…”

“Doesn’t matter,” Deckard said, cutting Hattie off. “Do you want ice cream, or not?”

“Yeah,” Hattie agreed quickly. No use turning down ice cream if it was already done. “Can I get a scoop for each goal I scored?”

“Sorry, pretty sure the shop owner has a maximum of two scoops per customer.”

“You’re making that up!” Hattie protested, narrowing her eyes at her brother.

“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not,” Deckard said, grinning at her.

It didn’t take long for them to walk to the shop and get their ice cream. As soon as they got their treat, they left the store. Hattie almost thought Deckard was afraid she was going to hit someone else if any of the boys showed up.

As they walked around the town, Hattie let her mind wander. Deckard and Owen never treated her any differently because she was a girl, and she was always able to keep up with them. Their father seemed to think she was useless, but she got the feeling that he felt that way about all of them. They were a waste of space, and he never failed to remind them of that. Why did the boys and parents of the other football team treat her any differently? She was just as good as them, if not better.

“Hattie!”

“Sorry, what?”

“I’ve been talking to you for the last minute with no response. What are you doing?” Deckard asked, knocking his hand against her head gently.

“Why does everyone get so mad that I play on my football team?” Hattie asked quietly, avoiding Deckard’s gaze.

“You’re too good, so they’re just looking for something different about you to blame it on,” Deckard said after a long pause.

Hattie licked her ice cream thoughtfully. She knew there was more to it than that, but really, she didn’t want to think about it. They had just won the championship, she had ice cream, and she was with Deckard. She wanted to focus on the positive things.

“I’ll show them all someday,” she announced confidently.

“I know you will. I can’t wait to see it,” Deckard said, ruffling her hair.


	3. Chapter 3

Having two older brothers could be helpful sometimes, but fifteen year-old Hattie knew that there were also drawbacks, especially if the brothers were like Deckard and Owen. She knew that they were only looking out for her, but they could also be really annoying. She had proven herself to be more than capable at taking care of herself, so it was frustrating when her brothers butted into her business.

This was especially true when it came to who she hung out with. She should be able to choose who she wanted to spend her time with, and her brothers shouldn’t be able to tell her that she couldn’t. Just because she had started to hang out with boys didn’t mean anything different, although Deckard and Owen had flipped their lids when they had found out.

One afternoon after school, Matthew, the boy Hattie had a crush on, had asked Hattie to hang out. Hattie had agreed right away, excited to be able to get to know the boy better. It didn’t mean anything, not really, but Owen had somehow found out at school, and she knew that both of them would be on their tail before long.

“Can we go to your house?” Hattie asked, glancing around to make sure that neither of her brothers was following them yet.

“No, mum’s home,” Matthew replied. “What about your house?”

“Definitely not,” Hattie said, almost cutting him off before he finished his question. “Let’s go somewhere else.”

Matt looked at Hattie oddly, and she hoped that she hadn’t scared him off before she even had a chance with him. Even if her parents weren’t home, which they almost certainly were not, there was no way she would ever willingly parade him into the lion’s den, knowing Deckard and Owen would scare him off before he got more than one foot through the door.

“Okay, the park?”

Not the coolest place Hattie could imagine, but she agreed. If they were quick enough, maybe they could slip away without anyone noticing. Honestly, she wouldn’t care if anyone noticed as long as Deckard and Owen didn’t notice, and they were the only hard ones to get by. She led Matthew on a rather roundabout path to the park, hoping to shake her tail if there was one. They were walking quickly and managed to get to the park in record time.

“What’s wrong?” Matthew asked as Hattie looked around.

“I just wanted to make sure my brothers didn’t see. Didn’t want to be interrupted,” she said.

“Oh. How many brothers do you have?”

“Two. Do you have any?”

“Nah, but I have a little sister.”

They had finally made it to the park, and Hattie pulled Matthew over to the more secluded area of the park and sat down. Hattie asked about his sister and they fell into easy conversation. Hattie kept an eye out for either of her brothers, but she figured that if they hadn’t interrupted yet, she and Matthew were probably safe from getting interrupted. Her brothers had their own fun, so it was only fair that she would get to have her own thing every once in a while.

After a while, Hattie and Matthew moved over to the swings.

“Will you push me?” Hattie asked while settling on one of the swings.

“Sure,” Matthew said, clearing his throat.

For the first few minutes, he tried to push her swing by only touching the chains, and Hattie laughed.

“I’m not going anywhere if you keep doing that.”

“Sorry,” he said, and Hattie saw that there was a faint blush across his cheeks when she twisted around to look at him.

It did the trick, and Matthew finally started pushing her swing in earnest. Hattie let out another giggle when she got up really high in the air, which got Matthew laughing along with her. On the next swing, Hattie launched herself from the swing at the highest point, landing gracefully on her feet.

“Wow, that was impressive,” Matthew said, walking over to her.

“Thanks for the assist,” Hattie said.

She pulled him closer to her and gave him a quick kiss, pulling away as soon as her lips hit his. He stared at her for a few seconds, but before either of them had time to do anything else, an angry voice cut through the air.

“Oi! What do you think you’re doing?”

Hattie turned to see a furious looking Owen storming towards them. She stepped slightly in front of Matthew, trying to block him from Owen, even if she knew that it was relatively pointless. If her brothers wanted to get to someone, there was pretty much no stopping them.

“Owen, what are you doing here?”

Ignoring her, Owen kept walking, sweeping Hattie out of his way. He balled up his fists, grabbing Matthew’s shirt in his firm grasp.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing with my little sister?”

“Owen, stop! Why can’t you ever just let me have my own life?”

“This is why! I leave you alone for a few hours and this wanker is all over you!”

“I kissed him! Now leave him alone!” Hattie said, shoving Owen hard.

The shove wasn’t enough to knock him over, but it did make Owen release Matthew and turn to look at Hattie. Matthew had a look of fear on his face and tripped over his own feet in his haste to run away from the Shaw siblings. Hattie called after him, but Matthew didn’t even look back as he put some distance between him and the park.

“Now look what you did. He’s probably never going to talk to me again!”

“Why do you care? He doesn’t matter- he’s just a dumb boy.”

Hattie turned on her brother with a look of absolute fury. Owen took a step back, putting his hands up as if to appease her. Hattie took a few steps forward and jabbed her finger into his chest. She was absolutely livid, and he was going to hear about it. Even if he wasn’t there, Deckard was going to be hearing about it too, because she was fed up with their interference in her life. She was fifteen, for god’s sake, and she didn’t need her big brothers ruining things.

“A dumb boy? Are you even listening to yourself? You’re the dumb boy,” she growled, and she was so mad that even the slight look of fear that crossed her brother’s face wasn’t enough to make her smile.

“Well, he shouldn’t have been kissing you. That’s definitely not okay,” Owen defended, his eyes hardening again.

“You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do. I kissed him, and that was my choice. Get that through your head- my choice.”

With that, Hattie turned and stormed off. She went a different direction from the way Matthew had run off, knowing that she had probably lost all chance of the boy even looking in her direction again. If she was lucky, he wouldn’t spread it around school, but she was sick of kids being scared of her or thinking she was weird because of her brothers. She wasn’t going home either. She needed some time to cool off, and she wouldn’t get that at home. Instead, she broke into a brisk jog, trying to let the pounding of her feet drown out the thoughts in her head.

Now that she was getting older, some things were going to have to change. Her brothers were going to have to learn to let go and let her make her own choices without interfering. Luckily, the run was already starting to help her calm down, and she kept going, letting her anger seep out of her gradually. She would deal with her brothers and everything else later.


End file.
